A professor of English at Vanderbilt University recently gave a talk about how the genre of climate fiction, or “cli-fi,” has a problem with “its intersection [of] race and genre.”
Teresa Goddu (pictured above), whose advocacy led to the creation of Vanderbilt’s Environmental and Sustainability Studies minor, told an audience at the Novel Seminar Series that climate fiction in the United States “depicts the climate crisis as a whiteness crisis,” The Hustler reports.
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A Vanderbilt University professor that co-founded an equity lab was recently appointed to the Metro Nashville Board of Health, the university announced.
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Two assistant professors in the department of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University have been selected to receive funding for research as part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Research Program.
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Vanderbilt University (VU) recently announced the launch of a $17 million program with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to “accelerate diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in the biomedical research community.”
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Researchers at Vanderbilt University have been granted $3.2 million from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to research children’s mental health, according to the university.
“A four-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will support the research of Carolyn Heinrich, University Distinguished Professor of Leadership, Policy and Organizations, and Melinda Buntin, University Distinguished Professor of Health Policy, into how school-based health interventions affect children’s mental health and education outcomes,” Vanderbilt announced last month. “Schools are serving children with ever-increasing mental health needs, which were amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. public schools serve as the primary entry point to mental health services for children, and school-based health centers, or SBHCs, increasingly are a ‘medical home’ for vulnerable children.”
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A trio of Tennesseans who applied to work at the Tennessee Aquarium were turned down because they were white, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.
Timothy Shawn Gunn and Marni Renee Pearce, both of Hamilton County along with Zachary Chance Taylor of Catoosa County, are suing the aquarium for discrimination.
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President Joe Biden recently appointed Keivan Stassun, Vanderbilt University’s Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy and director of the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, to serve on the National Science Board (NSB).
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An education professor delivered a lecture in early January at a major mathematician meeting that described college math as “white” and “cisheteropatriarchal.”
“Undergraduate Mathematics Education as a White, Cisheteropatriarchal Space and Opportunities for Structural Disruption to Advance Queer of Color Justice” was the full title of the lecture given by Luis Leyva, associate professor of mathematics education at the Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University.
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The research of two Vanderbilt faculty members has been recognized in TIME magazine’s ‘Best Inventions of 2022’ list.
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Vanderbilt University recently announced that all future first-year doctoral students will receive a $2,000 stipend in order for the graduate school experience to be “supported” and “enhanced” while also placing entering students on “more firm financial footing.”
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After a report exposed Vanderbilt University Medical Center for performing and bragging about performing gender transition surgeries for minors, and after a letter from Tennessee state legislators, the hospital has agreed to cease all such medical procedures.
“HUGE NEWS: following our report, Vanderbilt has agreed to pause all gender transition surgeries on minors,” said Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, who first exposed the medical center. “The fight is far from over but this will save children from mutilation and abuse. An incredibly important victory. Praise God.”
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A Vanderbilt University alumnus who is touted as one of the chief architects of the early COVID-19 vaccine will return to his alma mater to give a speech, the school recently announced.
“Pathbreaking immunologist, virologist, educator and leader Barney S. Graham, PhD’91, will deliver the School of Medicine Basic Sciences Dean’s Lecture on Monday, Oct. 17, at 4 p.m. CT in the Jacobs Believed In Me Auditorium at Featheringill Hall,” said a press release from the school. “Graham was the chief architect of the first experimental COVID-19 vaccines and earned the 2021 Vanderbilt University Distinguished Alumnus Award.”
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Tennessee’s governor is calling for an investigation after a scandal emerged involving a transgender clinic at Vanderbilt University.
“The ‘pediatric transgender clinic’ at Vanderbilt University Medical Center raises serious moral, ethical and legal concerns,” Lee said in a statement. “We should not allow permanent, life-altering decisions that hurt children or policies that suppress religious liberties, all for the purpose of financial gain. We have to protect Tennessee children, and this warrants a thorough investigation.”
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Thursday morning on Nashville’s Morning News With Dan Mandis, host Mandis welcomed Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to the show to discuss Vanderbilt University’s transgender surgeries on minors, America’s fentanyl crisis, and the Title XI gender identity executive order.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in studio to discuss Vanderbilt University’s pediatric transgender clinic and the life-altering gender surgeries on minors.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy was joined on the newsmaker line by Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson calls for Vanderbilt University to cease all pediatric gender mutilating surgeries to pause until the Tennessee General Assembly convenes in January to complete investigations and propose legislation.
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The Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) annual meeting will be held at Vanderbilt University on March 3-5th, 2023.
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Researchers at Vanderbilt University are leading the development of an artificial intelligence algorithm that can track and count monkeypox lesions, the university recently announced in a press release.
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According to a weekend story in German-owned Politico, one of the men behind President Joe Biden’s divisive Thursday night speech is a Vanderbilt professor who has long been mired in controversy for his far-left political leanings.
“The actual writing of the speech started about three weeks ago, with Jon Meacham, the historian who has had a hand in a number of Biden’s most sweeping speeches, helping the framing,” according to Politico.
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Vanderbilt University Monday announced plans for the University Hospital’s largest expansion ever.
“Through this project a new [Vanderbilt University Hospital] inpatient tower will be built atop an existing parking structure located between 21st Avenue South and Medical Center Drive. Access to the new tower’s entrance will be through Vivien Thomas Way,” according to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
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An index created by Vanderbilt University that is used to track political polarization and faith in America’s institutions says that Americans are becoming less polarized, according to the school’s second quarter analysis.
“Americans’ general faith and trust in democracy has stabilized in the first half of 2022, remaining relatively flat throughout the second quarter, according to the most recent Vanderbilt Unity Index,” the school said in a release.
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A department of the Tennessee state government dedicated to helping those who have been released from prison is touting a Vanderbilt University study aimed at understanding reentering LGBT people into society.
“Thank you to Ms. Danait Issac out of or including us in the first part of her study on reentry efforts for the justice-involved LGBTQ+ population. These are important conversations and we look forward to your work in the future! #PrideMonth,” said the Tennessee Department of Reentry on Twitter, attaching the study.
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Vanderbilt University is concerned after four of its medical school students have committed suicide in less than two years.
“Vanderbilt University is committed to a culture of caring in which the well-being of all community members—our extraordinary students, the faculty who teach them, and the staff who play an immeasurable role in the success of this remarkable university—is enhanced and supported,” Vanderbilt said in a statement. “We strive to foster a culture of openness through brave dialogue, honest self-reflection, and willingness to invest in this incredible university by investing first in the mental health and wholeness of every member of the Vanderbilt family.”
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President Biden’s proposed $2 trillion-plus Build Back Better Act failed to gain US Senate approval in 2021, but efforts remain to move forward with a revised version that would include universal government preschool programs and taxpayer-funded child care subsidies.
As US Congresswoman Katherine Clark (D-MA) said recently about taxpayer-backed daycare: “It is the issue that has survived all the iterations, and it is going to be the issue that we are able to get over the line with in the Build Back Better agenda.”
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Vanderbilt University announced last week that the CDC awarded the school $10.7 million in grants towards studying the effects of the COVID vaccine. The money will boost the IVY Research Network, which was originally created in 2019 to study the flu vaccination.
The statement from the school said this was the third renewal with IVY (The Influenza and Other Viruses in the Acutely Ill) Research Network, which consists of 21 large adult hospitals in 21 U.S. cities, funded by the CDC and led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
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Vanderbilt University announced on Thursday that the beginning of the semester will be delayed, due to the rise in positive coronavirus cases.
According to a statement from the university, the new timeline directs students to begin class on January 18. Originally, the semester’s classes began on January 10.
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Vanderbilt University announced last week that they would continue the partnership with the Japanese-based Ono Pharmaceutical Company through November 2023. Vanderbilt has been working with Ono since 2015, and this is the fourth extension of their contract.
“Such a successful cooperative effort is never guaranteed, so it is great to be able to continue and extend what has been Vanderbilt’s longest ongoing drug discovery collaboration with Ono,” said Thomas Utley, senior licensing officer at the Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization. “The collaboration is only possible because of the great working relationship that Ono brings to the table.”
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The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF), a Vanderbilt University-based schooling-policy nonprofit, this week announced the creation of its first twelve-member “Teacherpreneur cohort” to consider solutions to what the organization sees as major challenges in education.
NPEF—which aligns itself with progressive causes like “culturally relevant curricula,” higher teacher pay and increased public-school funding—is creating its new program with financial support from the ubiquitous online merchant Amazon, which also owns the information-technology-platform company Amazon Web Services (AWS).
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Vanderbilt University staff on Friday published a press release that announced they’d partnered with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) to study whether to convert certain High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes into High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes.
But by Monday the Vanderbilt press release had vanished. A source told The Tennessee Star on that Vanderbilt’s communications staff posted the press release in error. The press release appeared online before Vanderbilt officials had signed off on it.
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Vanderbilt University and the Tennessee Department of Traffic (TDOT) are beginning development of what is being called ‘the smartest roadway in the world.’ While the development only spans about six miles of Nashville’s Interstate 24, leader Dan Work of Vanderbilt University said that,
This research will help make the world’s roadways smarter and safer, with the initial research conducted right here in Tennessee. Beyond the thrill of participating in this never-before-attempted project, we are confident that this work will attract the attention of automakers and contribute to the region’s economy
This project, called the I-24 Mobility Technology Interstate Observation Network — or, I-24 MOTION — consists of 300 ultra HD cameras to anonymously capture details of drivers on the road. Part of the cameras instillation had already begun this summer, and the I-24 MOTION team hopes to have the remaining cameras installed and running by summer 2022.
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Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College are partnering to address ‘educational inequities’ in the Nashville area.
According to the two groups, the project will have the goal of “producing actionable, innovative and scalable research to address racial and social inequities in pre-K-12 schools.”
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Former Vanderbilt professor, Dr. Carol Swain, is hosting a book signing after the release of her new book about Critical Race Theory. Her new book, Black Eye for America, How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House, is an Amazon best seller. At the signing, she will be giving a presentation on Critical Race Theory as well as signing new books and taking questions from attendees. The signing will be held at “Brentwood’s iconic Puffy Muffin Bakery and Restaurant this Saturday, August 21st at 3pm,” according to a press release.
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Vanderbilt University officials have announced their COVID-19 masking requirements for the new 2021-2022 school year. Vanderbilt officials said in a Health and Safety Protocols memo that the Nashville-based school has a high vaccination rate of about 94 percent.
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Vanderbilt University announced on Wednesday that it awarded a total of $25,000 to staff and postdoctoral scholars in a giveaway for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Each winner received $1,000. The university held a giveaway handing out thousands of dollars as an incentive to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, despite requiring all students and staff in May to be vaccinated against COVID for the upcoming school year. The deadline to submit vaccination records is this Saturday.
Even if staff are working remotely, the university requires vaccination. Additionally, those who already contracted the virus are still required to be vaccinated.
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Vanderbilt University announced last month that it joined the Universities Studying Slavery (USS) consortium to further fight racial injustice and foster inclusivity on campus. According to the USS website, consortium membership means Vanderbilt University will probe its history for slavery or racism.
Chancellor Daniel Diermeier praised Vanderbilt University’s decision to further engage in introspection on its systemic inequity and racism.
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Christian Brothers University (CBU) in Memphis announced on Monday that students or employees who opt to not receive the coronavirus vaccine will not be allowed on campus.
The school’s announcement detailed that students and employees must submit documentation of vaccination by August 2. However, some exemptions will be allowed for medical reasons or “sincerely-held” religious beliefs.
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A Vanderbilt University chair said that race-based admissions would prevent minorities from attaining leadership positions and “influential” employment. Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair Professor of Law and Economic Joni Hersch made this assessment in a legal studies research paper, “Affirmative Action and the Leadership Pipeline.” The paper is expected to appear in Tulane Law Review soon.
Hersch wrote the article in response to the ongoing court case, Students for Fair Admissions (SSFA) v. Harvard. In the lawsuit, SSFA alleges that Harvard University discriminates against Asian applicants in its admissions process by engaging in racial balancing.
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One in five Tennessee public school students from across six districts were chronically absent last year during the pandemic. Vanderbilt University’s Tennessee Education Research Alliance (TERA) discovered this during a study of around 150,000 students across about 250 schools. They also discovered that the majority of chronic absenteeism cases occurred among English Learners, minority students, and economically disadvantaged students. The state classifies 10 percent or more of classes missed as chronic absence.
Nowhere did the report mention which six districts were studied. The Tennessee Star asked TERA spokespersons which districts they’d researched. They didn’t respond by press time. TERA noted that these districts’ chronic absenteeism rates have been climbing since 2018, but they’d jumped significantly last year with virtual learning.
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Come fall, Vanderbilt University and Maryville College are requiring students to be vaccinated for COVID-19 – even if the vaccine isn’t fully approved by the FDA. Maryville College was the first to announce a mandate of that nature in this state, issuing their press release late last month. Vanderbilt University issued their announcement on Monday.
Maryville College is the more lenient of the two Tennessee colleges in their mandate: they will allow exceptions for personal preference in addition to medical or religious reasons. The news release didn’t mention an accommodations request deadline. Vanderbilt University made no mention of personal preference-based exceptions – only medical and religious exemptions will be accepted. Their deadline for an accommodations request is June 15.
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Vanderbilt University’s Equal Opportunity and Access office is investigating formal complaints related to its recent student government election, in which a white, Jewish candidate says he faced cyberbullying and defamation.
Student Jordan Gould published a column in Medium last week headlined “When the Social Justice Mob Came for Me” that described how he was called a “white supremacist and a racist confederate” by peers as he ran for student government president.
“We have received several formal complaints related to the student government election and our Equal Opportunity and Access office is investigating these,” Vanderbilt’s spokesperson Damon Maida told The College Fix via email on Friday.
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As their grande finale for Black History Month, Vanderbilt University promoted an expansive reparations plan and membership in Black Lives Matter (BLM) Nashville.
Both events took place on February 26, the last in a lineup of 30 total events. The reparations event, titled “Reparations: An Issue Whose Time Has Come,” was hosted by Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) President Dr. Ron Daniels. The other event was titled, “Plugging in to Black Lives Matter,” and featured BLM Nashville encouraging students to get involved.
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Nashville’s Racial Equity in Arts Leadership (REAL) program received a $50,000 jump-start this week to continue its work. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded the program in its Grants for Arts Projects on Thursday, along with over 1,000 other programs across the country. The NEA awarded over $27.5 million in grants.
The REAL program focuses on advancing racial equity in the arts through its speaker series. Topics have included “The New Being: Perception and the Spiritual Existence of People of Color” and “Radical Inclusion.” Participants are leaders in their field that engage in seminars and workshops focused on racial equity within procedures such as hiring or programming events.
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Vanderbilt School of Law Professor Gautam Hans opined that social media companies should be on the offensive when it comes to regulating speech. In a spotlight series called “Ask an Expert” curated by Vanderbilt University, the assistant clinical professor suggested that these platforms ought to modify their approaches to content moderation.
In the brief video, Hans asserted that proactive approaches could improve the current dissatisfaction shared across party lines.
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A Vanderbilt University poll suggested that 88 percent of Tennessee’s registered Republican voters doubt the legitimacy of the presidential election. According to the university, the poll’s purpose was to discover any correlation between support of the COVID-19 vaccine and views on the election’s integrity. The poll lasted 21 days, surveying just over 1,000 individuals. Nowhere in their methodology did the research include the exact number of Republicans, Democrats, independent, and “other” respondents.
A supplementary video summarizing the polling results noted that 83 percent of Democrats pose a large public health problem, as opposed to 47 percent of Republicans. After providing that information, the video noted that 97 percent of Democrats believed nationwide votes from the Presidential election were counted fairly and accurately, as opposed to 12 percent of Republicans.
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss historian Jon Meacham’s recent firing from MSNBC for ethical reasons.
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MSNBC has dismissed Vanderbilt professor Jon Meacham from his job as a network contributor because he did not inform network staff that he was writing speeches for former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
The Tennessee Star left two messages with Vanderbilt University Tuesday, one by phone and one by email. We asked Vanderbilt officials if they planned to relieve Meacham of his duties because of his ethical lapse and lack of transparency.
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Michael Eric Dyson will join Vanderbilt University’s faculty next year, according to a press release that school officials published on Vanderbilt’s website this week.
The Tennessee Star asked former Vanderbilt professor Carol Swain to comment.
Swain said she didn’t have much to say about the topic.
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A Vanderbilt University assignment asked students whether the U.S. Constitution was “designed to perpetuate white supremacy,” and the “correct” answer to that question was “true.”
According to screenshots obtained by Young America’s Foundation, students were asked, “Was the Constitution designed to perpetuate white supremacy and protect the institution of slavery?” According to YAF, one student in the class lost points after answering “false.”
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Dr. Carol M. Swain appeared on Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends Weekend Edition to discuss the recent backlash facing Vanderbilt University for asking a quiz question suggesting the Constitution may perpetuate White supremacy by protecting the institution of slavery.
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A new poll from Vanderbilt University claims the approval rating for Mayor John Cooper is “sky high,” but only 19 percent of respondents said they identify as Republicans.
Another 45 percent of respondents said they identify as Democrats, while 26 percent said they are Independents and 10 percent said they are “something else.” Only 21 percent said their political views are “very conservative” or “conservative,” compared to 30 percent who said they are “liberal” or “very liberal.” Forty-eight percent said their political views are “moderate.”
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